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August 5, 2025

Trade and Tariff Update: Unpacking Trump’s Comments

By Joe Lieber

We have the following takeaways on trade and tariffs regarding President Trump’s interview on CNBC this morning. While Trump mentioned that he would raise tariffs on India over the next 24 hours since India continues…

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August 3, 2025

Hospices, IRFs, IPFs: Thoughts on Final FY26 Medicare Payment Rules

By Beth Steindecker

Medicare’s final FY26 payment regulations for hospices [CHE, AMED, ADUS, PNTG, BTSG, Gentiva, Compassus, Elara], inpatient rehab facilities (IRFs) [EHC, SEM], and inpatient psych facilities (IPFs) [UHS, ACHC] aligned with expectations for: 1) slightly higher aggregate spending…

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August 1, 2025

Hospitals, LTCHs, SNFs: Thoughts on Medicare’s Final FY26 Inpatient Rate Rules

By Beth Steindecker

Medicare’s final FY26 payment regulations for inpatient hospitals [HCA, THC, CYH, ARDT, UHS, MPW, municipal bond-backed facilities], long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) [SEM, Kindred], and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) [ENSG, PACS, Providence] with implications for their post-acute…

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July 31, 2025

Trade and Tariff Conference Call Takeaways

By Joe Lieber

With the August 1 tariff deadline tomorrow, we have the following takeaways from our trade and tariff conference call that we held yesterday morning with Derek Scissors. A transcript is available upon request. Takeaways Derek…

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July 31, 2025

The State of Biopharma, Tools, & Research Spending

By John Leppard

This morning’s Senate Appropriations Committee’s markup of the FY26 Labor / HHS funding bill, which includes a $400M increase (+0.8% YoY) for NIH, should serve as an interim clearing event for life science tools (LST)…

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July 30, 2025

HUM: MA Stars Lawsuit May Provide Another Boost to HUM, Timing Unknown

By Beth Steindecker

Against the backdrop of positive Q2 earnings, upward full-year guidance, and voiced confidence in the ability to manage the medical cost and utilization trends throughout 2H and into next year, we think the recently refiled…

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July 29, 2025

Defense Update: FY26 Funding and Upcoming Events

By Joe Lieber

We wanted to highlight our expectations for defense spending in FY26 and the upcoming legislative schedule for the defense sector.  Bottom line: we still believe that a continuing resolution (CR) funding defense at FY25 levels…

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July 28, 2025

CY26 Medicare Part D: Additional Spending but CMS Starting to Put on the Brakes

By Beth Steindecker

Today’s CMS release regarding its CY26 Medicare Part D program gives  the impression the agency is focusing on stability in its drug benefit program with the goal to ensure 1) enrollees – especially those in…

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July 28, 2025

Capitol Policy Weekly: Trade, Govt Spending, Gambling, and AVs

By Joe Lieber

With the House out of session until September 2 and the Senate scheduled to leave for its August recess at the end of this week, trade seems likely to continue to dominate the headlines as…

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July 23, 2025

Guardant Health (GH) Reveal Rate Expectations

By John Leppard

We view CMS’s clinical laboratory advisory panel today as an incremental positive for Guardant Health (GH), despite what appears to be a lack of endorsement for the company’s request that payments for Reveal (0569U: $1,644)…

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